


Ultraviolet

by LeesiGalaxy



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Bay Movies), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Blood and Injury, Crime, F/M, Gun Violence, Injury, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:34:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29221056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeesiGalaxy/pseuds/LeesiGalaxy
Summary: It's been a year since the attack on New York by Krang and his Technodrome. The Foot Clan, along with Baxter Stockman, have seemingly vanished from the earth, and this doesn't sit well with Raphael, to say the least. Since sitting around and doing nothing really just isn't his style, he starts going out to look for them on his own, in secret. When it all goes terribly wrong, though, Raph is saved in an act of bravery, and weirdly enough, it ends up being one of the best things to have ever happened to him and his family.
Relationships: Donatello (TMNT) & Original Female Character(s), Leonardo (TMNT)/Original Character(s), Michelangelo (TMNT) & Original Female Character(s), Raphael (TMNT)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Ultraviolet

He’d been doing this for a while now; a couple of months, under his brother’s noses. After nightly patrols, after all of his brothers had fallen asleep and his father had long since turned in for the night, Raphael left for the top side once more. No one had noticed thus far, though Leo had commented a couple of times how his movements had become more sluggish as of late. Raph simply told him that he hadn’t been sleeping well lately, and while that wasn’t too terribly far from the truth, he did feel a pang of guilt when Leo gingerly offered to keep him company. He was trying to be a good big brother, thinking that Raph was going through something he was having a hard time talking about. Leo wasn’t exactly wrong, but even if Raph had wanted to open up about it, he couldn’t. If Leo found out about what he’d been doing the last couple of months, he would call him stupid and reckless, and he’d try to make him stop… It would just complicate things, so it would just be better if he.. worked through it on his own.

Fighting alone was harder than he’d anticipated, at least at first. An egotistical part of him had always thought deep down that he’d be fine fighting on his own, but after 10 plus years of training to fight as a unit, every fiber of his being seemed to cry out that it wasn’t right. He wrote it off as his guilty conscience and told himself that he couldn’t always rely on his brothers. So, he worked hard to be able to hold his own, taking on petty criminals at first and working his way up from there. And he had to say.. he was happy with how far he’d come along. Still, he looked forward to fighting with his brothers at his side; there really was nothing quite like it. 

It had been a year since the incident with Krang and his Technodrome, and the Foot Clan seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth, along with Baxter Stockman. It made Raph nervous to know that they were still out there somewhere, waiting, plotting their next move; while the Foot was still around and Stockman remained an unknown variable, his family and friends would always be in danger… it really drove him crazy sometimes. Leo admitted once that it worried him too, but said that it was important for them to be alert, not anxious; with Chief Vincent’s help, they kept tabs on police reports in case the Foot ever cropped up, but… it wasn’t enough. If they were being extra cautious, they likely weren’t leaving any witnesses alive to file said report… No, sitting around and waiting for them to mess up just wasn’t an option for Raph.

So, while Raph would never miss an opportunity to put a stop to a crime in progress, his real goal was to find the Foot, wherever they were hiding. So far, he had come up empty handed; it was frustrating, but at least he was able to blow off some steam by beating the crap out of some would-be criminals.

The shrill sound of static crackled to life from the police scanner on his hip as a feminine voice informed whomever was listening that there was a ‘10-17’ in progress, followed by the address; a robbery, and somewhat unsurprisingly, it wasn’t really in a bad part of town. In fact, if he remembered correctly, he and his brothers had stopped a robbery of a jewelry store on that street. Was it the same place? The nearest officer replied that he was in route, but Raphael was already on his way, expertly leaping great distances from one rooftop to the other. The officer who’d replied was more than likely coming from a more high-risk area, so Raph figured he’d have just enough time to get in, put the thief(s) down for a little nap, and get out. It would have to be his last fight for the night, though; it wasn’t quite daylight yet, but people were starting to wake up and start their days. Besides, he was getting pretty tired… maybe he was running himself a little ragged.. Couldn’t be helped, though. 

Coming to a stop at the address, Raph’s keen hearing picked up the sound of a commotion below; he tread to the edge of the rooftop and peered down into the alley behind the building. There were four of them, by his count. Three were hauling empty duffle bags into the building and emerging with full ones, throwing them into the back of an old van, and the fourth guy was standing at the edge of the building, a gun clenched in unsteady hands. He was the lookout, it seemed, and a twitchy one at that. He was practically pacing in place, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he kept watch; even one of his fellow thieves commented on his jittery behavior. “Be cool man, you’re freaking me out actin’ like that! You’re gonna end up shooting one of us if you don’t get your shit together.”

“You’re trippin’ dude. Worry `bout yourself.” 

Muttering a few words to himself, the guy relented and went back to helping fill up the bags; or, he would have, at least.

“Good help really is hard to find these days, isn’t it?” 

A shuriken spiraled out of the darkness, snatching the strap of the duffle bag right out of the thug’s hands; it landed in the brick wall just a few feet away, pinning the strap to the wall along with it. The two men’s heads snapped upwards to where they’d heard the voice come from, but there was no one there. Suddenly, with a resounding thud, Raph landed between them at the van, giving his sai a twirl in preparation for the inevitable fight. 

The lookout’s features contorted into an expression of horror as he lifted his handgun, pointing it shakily at the humongous figure that towered over him quite easily. Raph could tell that he was young, around his own age at least, and clearly new to the whole criminal thing. The other guy seemed startled at first, but recovered quickly as he retrieved the crowbar on his hip with gritted teeth; his shocked countenance turned enraged. “It’s one of them freaks that got the boss thrown in the slammer!” He snarled. Seemingly having heard the ruckus, the other two emerged from the jewelry store armed and prepared for a fight. Luckily, the kid seemed to be the only one armed with a gun, and he didn’t seem all that confident in using it.. not that Raph was keen on proving that theory. 

With one swift motion, Raphael was up on the guy with the gun in a matter of seconds, grabbing his wrist and bending it in such a way that it was too painful for him to hold onto the weapon; with a cry of surprise and pain, he dropped the gun, and it clattered noisily to the ground. Raphael kicked it away with his foot, sweeping it way down to the mouth of the alleyway leading to the main street. With that out of the way, he thrust his elbow upward, making contact with the lookout’s chin, which sent him stumbling backwards; then, he kicked him in the gut, knocking him into the wall behind him, and watched him slump against the wall, out for the count. One down, three to go. 

The one with the crowbar came at Raph, wailing his weapon wildly and in an uncoordinated fit of rage; luckily for Raph, these sorts of wild attacks were pretty easy to avoid. He easily blocked every blow sent his way, stepping backwards towards the van with every strike. Finally, he caught the crowbar between the prongs of one of his sai and gave it a hard yank backwards. The man was strong, so he held tight to his weapon, which is just what Raph had hoped for. He stepped out of the way as the man tumbled forward after his weapon, coming to a halt right in front of the wide open doors of the van. Before he had a chance to recover, Raph had grabbed him by the nearest shoulder and held him in place as he slammed one of the doors straight into the back of his head. The blow left him incapacitated, and with that, Raphael turned his attention on the last two. 

They both came at him at once; one had a metal pipe, like something you’d rip right out of the plumbing of a bathroom. The other wielded a metal baseball bat, and he swung with at least relatively better self-control than the last guy… not much, though. Raph jumped backwards to avoid the first swing, not finding much difficulty in the task. “Strike one!” He taunted, a mischievous grin tugging at the edges of his lips. Determined, the man gave another swing, which was simply deflected this time. “Strike two!” Finally, the thug let out a frustrated scream and attempted to bring it down on Raph from above, who simply turned his back to him and let the bat hit his shell; it was essentially like hitting a really big, sturdy rock. It bounced right off, and the harsh vibrations from the strike caused him to let go of the bat, hands stinging. “You’re out!” 

Raph gave him a quick jab to the head with the blunt end of one of his sai and a knee to the gut; the guy dropped, gasping, having had the air knocked out of him. He was no longer a threat. Raph was vaguely aware of some kind of unidentifiable sound coming from towards the opening of the alleyway, and he looked towards it, expecting to see maybe another accomplice here for backup. Instead, what he saw was the silhouette of what looked to be a young woman. 

A cup of some kind had been dropped from her grasp, forgotten as she gawked at the scene before her. Raph’s mossy irises widened. _Shit_. Having been momentarily distracted, the last man standing was able to get a good swing in on Raph, striking him across the side of the head and sending him stumbling to the side. Growling, Raphael dropped his sai and reached out, grabbing the pipe as it was swung his way again. He yanked it out of the guy’s hands and tossed it aside before snatching the guy up by the collar of his shirt and preparing to give him a good old-fashioned punch to the face. Movement out of the corner of his eye begged his attention, though, and he dared another glance. 

The guy from before, the lookout, had apparently recovered and was making a full-blown sprint towards the girl, who was frozen in her place, much like a frightened doe. _Shit_! Raph threw the guy in his grasp aside without another thought, turning to run after the lookout. “Don’t you even think about it you little--!” But he was already upon her; instead of grabbing her like he’d feared, though, he reached down to snatch something out of sight, and before Raph even had a chance to react, a gunshot rang out as loud as a crack of lightning. And just like a crack of lightning, a bolt of white-hot pain seared through his shoulder, and he howled out in pain as his remaining sai dropped from his grasp. 

Blinded by the pain, Raphael stumbled backwards, until his shell was pressed up against the side of the van. He slid down it, hand desperately clenching at the bullet-wound. Pulling his hand back to inspect it, he found it to be entirely coated in a hot, crimson substance, and he stared at it with a wide-eyed frown, as though he were utterly shocked to see it. Blood. 

While he stared at his hand in numb disbelief, he didn’t notice the kid who’d shot him stalking up to him, gun pointed directly at his head. “Not so tough now, huh!?” He shrieked, finger on the trigger, threatening to pull it at any moment. It was like he’d come completely unhinged.. There was blood in the water, and the kid was sent into a frenzy. “A freak like you took the boss out!? Ha! I say the boss was a weakling! I mean, look how easy it was to take you down!” As the gravity of the situation really began to set in, Raphael’s green irises searched the ground desperately for his sai, only to find them to be much too far away; besides, as the kid gloated, Raph found it nearly impossible to lift his injured arm. The pain was just… unbearable. God.. Was this really it? Was this really how he was going to go down? Alone, without his brothers by his side? Gritting his teeth, he glowered up at his shooter, his labored breathing coming out more like growls than breaths. “Maybe… I should be the one leading! What do you think? Hm??” Without a response, the lookout stepped closer, the muzzle of the handgun mere inches from Raphael’s head. “Any last words, freak?” 

Suddenly and without warning, before Raphael could even begin to think of something to say, a resounding CLUNK rang out; Raph flinched at first, clenching his eyes shut as tightly as he could… Then, when the seemingly imminent end never came… he cautiously opened them. 

The girl was standing over his would-be killer, a familiar metal pipe clenched within her two small, delicate hands. Had she… stopped him? Raph’s eyes drifted down to the now unconscious form of the lookout, then, back up to she who had dealt the blow. For the life of him, Raph simply could not imagine why she had saved him. Wasn’t she frightened of him? From where he was, she certainly did look to be afraid.. Her eyes, the coolest shade of arctic blue, were wide and unblinking as they peered anxiously into his own, and she looked as though she may bolt at any second. But was it him that she was afraid of? Or… was she just in shock of the situation itself? 

Well, there would be time to unpack it later. For now, he knew he couldn’t afford to worry about it, not in the state that he was in. Hissing with pain, Raph attempted to haul himself to his feet with no small amount of effort; the pain was all-encompassing, so much so that he barely registered the girl who’d saved him stepping back a few paces. All Raph knew was that he needed to get home.. and soon. Weirdly enough, though, his legs felt like jelly as he stood, and soon he found himself falling back into the van behind him with a pained groan.

Dropping the metal pipe from her grasp, the girl stepped closer once more, outstretching an arm to slip it beneath his uninjured arm, to help him stay standing. “Whoa, easy— you.. you really shouldn’t be moving..” She said urgently. “We should get you to a hospital or..”

“No hospital,” Raph snapped, only vaguely aware of the sound of sirens growing ever closer. Not good... Ever since the run in with the NYPD, he and his brothers offered and received help from the department, which was.. great. But only a select few officers knew of their existence; only those who'd been involved that day with taking out Krang and his Technodrome. The less people who knew, the easier it was to keep secret, so unfortunately, whatever officers were headed this way probably weren't in on the secret, and he really didn't need more guns on him, especially considering how all of this looked. He glanced around to the bodies that littered the alley, only realizing then that the fourth had gotten the hell out of there. “just get outta here, `fore the cops get here.” 

“Okay, no hospital.” The blonde uttered, seemingly unfazed by his telling her to leave. “Then where?” 

Initially, Raph ignored her as he pulled away from her. Home. He had to go home.. but as he stood there, leaned against the van, he was becoming acutely aware of the amount of blood that was dripping from the tips of his fingers down to gather on the pavement below. With his arm the way that it was, he knew that he wasn’t likely going to be able to escape to the rooftops above to avoid the police that were nearly here. The manhole that was not but a few feet away was his only choice.. but it was a pretty long trek home, and he wasn’t sure if he would have the strength to make it there on his own with the amount of blood that he was losing. 

Weighing his options, Raph glanced the girl’s way, whose gaze still betrayed the fear that he was sure she was trying to swallow down. Could she be trusted? He searched her eyes, as though he could find the answer hidden there, somewhere. Trusting humans was not something that came easy to Raphael; to be fair, he hadn’t regretted trusting the ones he’d met so far, but that was a short list. Most humans he ran into were either criminals, or they ran screaming because they thought he was a monster.. But that's just how things were. Even if he and his family had taken up the offer to be introduced to the world, it wouldn’t have changed things, not really. People would still think they were monsters, or freaks at the very least. Besides, it’d just make their job of protecting the city from the shadows that much more difficult.

It was hard to say for certain if he could trust this girl, who was seeming trying very hard to do the right thing.. But-- and maybe he just wasn’t thinking clearly--… she had saved his life, and even though she was afraid right now, she was still trying to help him.. She was brave. He could at the very least say that she was brave. 

After a moment, he acquiesced, heaving a wavering sigh. “Home.. s’in the sewers. Down there.” With his free hand, he pointed to the manhole cover just a few feet away, in the middle of the alley way. Her eyes followed his gesture and lingered there on the manhole cover. “I can tell you which way to go, I just need you to help me get there.” 

“Okay.” She finally replied, lips pursed into a taut frown. If there was any reluctance on her part, it was left unspoken, and Raph was happy enough to leave it that way. Quickly, he tore some spare bandages off of his forearm, bunching them up into a ball and placing it over his wound, pressing hard into it in some effort to stop the bleeding. Then, he leaned back into the stranger, testing how much weight he could entrust to her. She was small, but stronger than he had feared.. That was good, at least.

Together, they made their way to the manhole, where the girl struggled vainly to unseal it for a good few seconds before Raph nudged her out of the way and opened it himself. It was no easy feat for him either, doing so in his weakened state and with one arm. Still, though, he managed. He had her go down first so that she could help steady him when he reached the bottom, and once she was down, he started after her, unsteadily balancing there on the ladder and closing the manhole cover behind him. 

Once he was at the bottom with her, they began the long journey through the city’s sewer system. 

* * *

Bursting through the chain-link door, half walking and half dragging the humongous turtle along beside her, the girl cried out into the open air through gasps of labored breathing. “Hello!?” She practically screamed, legs finally giving out from underneath her. The turtle followed suit, landing half on top of her.

They were on her within seconds; three others of his kind poured over her, panicked voices seeming to all blur into a garbled mass of noise that she couldn’t really understand. Two of them grabbed the injured turtle up into their arms and carried him off, and her pale irises followed until they disappeared. She was vaguely aware of a third talking to her, but with her heartbeat thundering in her ears as it was, she barely even heard him or even registered that he was there. At least, not until...

The tip of a sword came into view, glinting in the blue light of a nearby TV. 

“I said,” the turtle started, glaring down at her from within the slits of a blue mask. “what. happened?”  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I'm new on the site, this is my first time posting. In fact, this is the first fanfiction I've written in a long while. TMNT is a comfort fandom for me, so I decided to write myself a little something to cheer myself up during the craziness of It Which Shall Not Be Named. Since it's a comfort project, it's not going to be perfect by any means; it's probably gonna be corny, cliché, and just your average joe fanfic. I can't promise weekly updates since I'm just writing it for fun whenever I feel like it, but I hope you like it nonetheless. Let me know what you think!! <3


End file.
